Sison amomum (L) Stone Parsley
NOMENCLATURE
Sison: from Greek _____ _____ Dioscordies.
amomum: Greek : name of an Indian
spice plant, used here because of pungent smell.
OTHER NAMES: hedge sison. Hedge stonewort. Bastard Stone Parsley.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE : glabourous perennial. Hs. HEIGHT : 100cm
AROMA : nauseous when crushed, like petrol or nutmeg, or ammonia:
stale perspiration. Fruits pungent, aromatic. STEMS : solid striate.
UMBELS: compound 3-6 smooth rays 3cm. Peduncle >.
LEAVES: simply pinnate. Lowest lobes pinnatifid or pinnatisect. Lobes of lowest lvs
2-5 pairs, 3-6 cm, ovate-lancolate, cuneate at base, sessile or subsessile, serrate, obtuse
teeth with cartilaginous margin + short acute mucro. Petiole long with dilated base. Upper
cauline lvs, 1-2 pairs of linear to narrow-spathulate, toothed lobes + short sheathing
petiole. Cotyledons : Abruptly contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS: 2-4, linear lancolate to subulate. Bracteoles 2-4, ovate lancolate.
FLOWERS: white. Styles forming stylopodium. Hermaphrodite.
Pollination by Diptera. Fl. 7-9.
FRUIT: 3mm. Subglobose, laterally compressed, smooth. Commisure narrow.
Mericarps: prominent ridges. Carpophore present. Vittae 1/2 as long as mericarp, solitary.
Pedicels 1-5mm, unequal. Styles 1/2 as long as stylopodium, divergent to recurved.
Stigma a small knob. 2n=14.
HABITAT: hedge bottoms, grassy places, banks, roadsides, occasionally. waste ground.
DISTRIBUTION: native. S. & E. Eng., a line from r. Humber to r.
Severn. Few spots in Wales on coast. W. & S. Europe. S.W. Asia. N. Africa.
